Maintenance Reports 10-12 and Final Report

Maintenance Reports Continued

Wednesday 7/11/2012

I am done… With all the extra time spent over the last several days, I have finished my goal of organizing my entire room early. I have even enjoyed organizing everything. Every day, I’ve showed my parents each improvement, and I’ve shared my clean room with several real life friends on Skype. All I had left to do was organize what was on top of my cedar chest. I waited to do this last, because once the rest of the room was organized, I knew organizing that would be fast. It took me 10 minutes.

Another reason for having no other maintenance work to do, is that I take time throughout the day to re-organize things as well. For instance, my dresser right next to my room, is where I often set things upon coming in my room (cell phone, license, cup, hair ties, etc.). When I glance over to the dresser while on the computer, and see things out of place, I immediately take care of it. The hint of clutterness actually bothers me now. Also, the other night, I did laundry. I saw that I had a load worth, and it bothered me that I had it just sitting there, waiting for the morning to do maintenance. So I took care of it then and there, and when I brought it back up, I immediately put everything in its place just like I did during my cleaning dare.

Since I was done after 10 minutes, I had to spend 5 minutes at the wall. I tried thinking about anything else I could have done to work on my room to avoid this time, but nothing came to mind. I then thought about what I need to do in order to keep the room clean after I get back from vacation. I know that I need to develop a valid plan.

Morning Maintenance Modification Request

I will give as little detail as possible, as you'll see it all in my "report," which to be honest, I've just kept a daily journal regarding it anyway, but there will still be a *short* report to go with it at the end.

Anyway... there is nothing left to organize. You know I've spent more time than initially planned on while cleaning in the mornings. I ended up needing to spend 5 minutes at the wall this morning, as I ran out of things to do after 10 minutes.

I tried thinking about anything else I could do to improve the room, and nothing came to mind. What did come to mind though, is what brought up this idea, which is the reason for my request.

I am not asking to be released from my maintenance time, but rather than spend it at the wall standing for 15 minutes, with having little to reflect on (except for what this request is about), I would like to instead spend time designing a plan on how I intend to keep my room clean, over the next two mornings.

I see myself making a plan with pen and paper in a notebook, brainstorming and such.

If you're okay with me doing this, I would prefer to do this comfortably on my bed, but will of course be okay with doing it on the floor, facing the wall/corner if you feel I still have some type of "corner time."

As always, I look forward to your response.

RoseBrat89

He was fine with this and even let me do it on my floor

Thursday & Friday 7/12/2012-7/13/2012

Over the last two mornings, I worked on devising a plan to keep my room clean, which will be in effect once I come back from vacation. This is what I have come up with.

-Maintenance 2 times a week. One needs to be done midweek, and one on the weekend.

-Before student teaching starts, both can be performed early in the morning. Perhaps at 5:00 am on the week day to get used to waking up so early, and 7:00 am on the weekend.

-Once school starts: midweek needs to be done after dinner (re-organizing dressers, keeping work things tidy, check for misplaced clothes)

-Weekend- early morning, laundry, vacuum, dust

I have also created two checklists.

o Floor is clear
o Top of dresser near door
o Cedar chest
o Closet floor
o Under bed
o Closet shelves
o All drawers close

Weekend (To be performed and checked off on Saturday/Sunday depending on college class schedule)

o Laundry
o Dust
o Empty trashcan
o Remove dishes from room
o Vacuum

I want to be able to self-regulate myself with my maintenance, as this is ultimately my responsibility. However, if I catch myself falling off the wagon, I’ll speak with Dravot about ideas to help hold me responsible.

I had 3 minutes left of my maintenance time when this checklist was finished today (Friday). Instead of standing at the wall with a coin for those three, I decided to kneel in the corner, with my nose in the corner and hands behind my back for 5 minutes. I did this as a way to submit to Dravot’s initial request for my maintenance time, to commemorate my last day of the second part of my dare, and as final reminder and warning to myself, to NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER let my room go as I did.

While kneeling, I told myself that it was absolutely disgusting the way I let my room go. I told myself if I ever let my room I hate kneeling, and I felt absolutely miserable. I kept waiting for my alarm to go off, but it taunted me. I almost felt I was going to pass out. I haven’t been made to kneel in several months now. I was just about to give up, and then my alarm finally went off.

This dare has been an amazing success. I have a learned a lot over the last two weeks.
The main thing I’ve learned is to have an appreciation for cleanliness. I’m astounded every time I walk in my room. I smile every time I look at my bookshelf, closet shelves, floors, dresser tops, etc. If for some reason I’m not smiling, then it means I have to fix something, so I get right on it.

I also appreciate setting time aside to focus on my room. 15 minutes really isn’t too much to ask for. Being required to wake up each morning in order to do maintenance at 7 has helped me see that. In fact, towards the end until my room was all clean, tidy, and organized, I spent a lot more time each morning cleaning, up to 70-80 minutes. I love that when I need something, I know exactly where it is now, rather than digging for hours trying to find something buried under all the mess. During the time my room was so messy and disgusting, I would spend countless hours in my room playing Runescape on my laptop, and talking to friends on voice servers. I would even joke to some friends, saying if only I spent some of this time cleaning instead of playing. I wanted to, but I just didn’t feel like cleaning when I know it would just get dirty again. This however, is not going to happen. I won’t let it.

I have definitely learned not to put clothes on the floor, for any reason whatsoever. If I’m going to get back into my clothes for any reason after getting out of them, then I feel they are clean enough to stick back in my drawers with my other clean clothes. Similarly, I have a trashcan for a reason, and I will continue to use it. There is no reason for a paper to be on the ground, or put out of place in my room. I think one more thing I will further do to ensure my room stays clean, is to have a designated place for a paper I need to set down and walk away from, and I won’t go to bed until all papers are put back in their place each night. I will start doing this upon returning from vacation later this month.

I think the hardest thing is going to be keeping my room clean while I student teach this fall, as I’ll be at the school 10 hours a day, as well as driving a total of 80 minutes round trip. I will be tired and exhausted. While it will be most difficult, this will also be the most important time to keep my room tidy, so that I don’t lose anything needed for my job.

I expect to adopt similar manners regarding everything when I end up leaving the nest and flying out on my own. The lessons I have learned now, should have been learned long ago. The important this however, is that they are indeed learned. I will have to how to apply them now, as well as adapt to apply them in the future. It will be an ongoing learning process, but I have extremely optimistic hopes for my future in keeping things clean, neat, and tidy.

Thank you Dravot, once again for the time you took to set the dare, and for the support and encouraging words you’ve given, for being someone I felt safe enough to give partial control to for this matter as well as potential future ones, and for being a new friend.
RoseBrat89

The End

Yup. That is the conclusion, the final report. My daily maintenance days are over. I hope that you have enjoy reading the contents of my blog. I look forward to posting more blogs regarding future dares, as well as perhaps other things. Who knows. Thanks for reading!